Diamond Heart Engagement Ring

Antwerp: City break in Europe's diamond capital and Renaissance gem

Everyone knows that diamonds are a girl’s best friend. So imagine my trepidation when I took my wife and three daughters to Antwerp, the diamond capital of Europe. Just how much was this weekend going to cost, I wondered - £5,000? £10,000? ‘I don’t mind little ones,’ said my youngest. ‘As long as they sparkle.’

Most visitors to Belgium head straight to Bruges, with its gabled houses, backwater canals and chocolate-box dwellings. But Antwerp, 50 miles to the east, is a far livelier place for a city break. This is a city that just happens to have a stunning medieval centre. It’s Bruges without the tourists. And it also has an extraordinary museum at its heart.

‘Oh no!’ groaned the girls. ‘We’re not visiting another museum.’ Well, yes we are, actually. But at least Plantin Moretus House is one of the most fascinating in Europe. The former home of Renaissance printer Christoffel Plantin, it has scarcely changed since the 16th Century. His 400-year-old workshop is intact. It’s a unique time machine.

Plantin, a lace-ruffed genius who counted the artist Rubens among his close friends, deserves to share the same pedestal as Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press. Plantin built on Gutenberg’s work, printing many of the most important books of his time, virtually all of which are on display here. Even if you’re obsessed by Kindles, you can’t fail to be moved by the items that rolled off his production line.

In the workshop, thousands of tiny metal letter blocks used for typesetting pages can be seen in a half-opened cupboard. Many of them have not been touched in more than four centuries.

For the first few minutes of our visit, my girls professed to be bored, but they slowly found themselves sucked in. Their minds were no longer focused on diamonds. They could imagine the coiffed ladies and silk-clad merchants who used to visit Plantin in these rooms. And they wanted to know how the stunning books on display were created.

If you want to linger in this era for a little longer, head straight to the nearby Rubens House. Dating from 1610, this majestic palace is also more or less intact. It’s where Rubens would chat with Plantin, and also paint the foreign commissions that earned him a knighthood from King Charles I.

Heart Shaped Diamond Engagement Rings

This is the ultimate in a symbol of the love between you and your significant other. A heart shaped diamond engagement ring stands as a symbol of your heart which you have chosen to give to the one you love. The design for these rings varies such that sometimes it is a heart-shaped frame which is then filled with small diamonds or it is actually a diamond shaped into a heart by being cut and polished that way.

You can find an array of heart shaped diamond engagement rings in a variety of colors depending on whether you also want to make a statement with something that deviates from the usual white or clear diamonds.

Some importers, manufactures and designers who sell pieces which are rather exquisite can be found on Amazon as follows:

Diamond-Me is one of the online stores who have both their own website and also operate through Amazon to bring you a wide range of bridal and engagement rings. With their helpful customer care hotline and even an email address which you can use to follow up on requests and orders, you will be served and handled professionally all the way. Their prices are affordable as they buy natural conflict-free diamonds straight from the cutters themselves and handle all the issues with middlemen before setting unbelievably manageable prices on their final products. Upon purchase, you receive a certificate of authenticity and returns are allowed up to 30 days after the date of delivery in case you need any exchanges or alterations done. Their money-back guarantee is true to its word as you will find that all refunds are done within a maximum of 48 hours! That having been said, have a look at these beauties from Diamond-Me: